At a certain point, I got hooked and couldn’t stop. But the writing was good (with some really beautiful lines) and the characters were compelling. We Heart YA: It took me a few chapters to really get into EMBER. Summarize your overall thoughts on An Ember in the Ashes: He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined-and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier-and secretly, its most unwilling. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.īut when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear. Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free. Goodreads * Amazon * Barnes & Noble * IndieBound * An Ember in the Ashes Website Check out the epic book trailer and read a little more about the book:Īn Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, Hardcover, 464 pages, Penguin/Razorbill April 28, 2015 Thank you so much to Penguin Razorbill for providing us with review copies of An Ember in the Ashes. I feel like this book is going to be BIG – Hunger Games big I don’t know, but the book has been optioned for film. This book gave us a lot to chat about, from the setting and world building to the character development and violence. You can see what we thought about the book in our discussion transcript below. An Ember in the Ashes is our first fantasy read, which was a fun change of pace.

Our April book club pick is AN EMBER IN THE ASHES by Sabaa Tahir. Each month we’ll focus on one book with a book review (our discussion chat) and bonus features. Our book club includes Sandie Teen Lit Rocks, Kristan We Heart YAand Kristina Gone Pecan. In the YA Diversity Book Club, we chat about the latest YA books that celebrate diversity.

An ember in the ashes